I, like my fellow mamas and daddies, spend tireless hours finding new recipes, planning, shopping, prepping and cooking healthy meals for my toddler. On a good day, half of the food is actually consumed. On a typical day, half of the food “falls” onto the floor.
Parents’ goal is to protect our children, even if that means converting to brown rice, quinoa and ground turkey. Parents want to give children what they need.
Why do we bother?
Charli would rather eat a whole can of fruit cocktail (no sugar added) than touch my clean pot roast. She snubs my efforts to create a tasty, varied menu. If Charlotte had her way, she would eat sweet potatoes, corn, cooked carrots, saltine crackers and cookies. … LOTS of cookies.
These are the things she wants!
The most success I have experienced with feeding my daughter is when I set aside my aspirations of clean eating. For example, I baked pigs in a blanket tonight, and she loved it!
I doubt a hot dog wrapped in a crescent roll is filled with vitamins and nutrients, but what’s a mama to do?
Pigs in a blanket is better than no dinner at all! … Right?
So, my big question: Do I continue my efforts to introduce healthier meals that end up on my floor, or do I cave and make a menu out of corn-dogs, ravioli, chicken nuggets and PB&J?
How do you get your toddler to eat “better?”
This Side of the Rainbow 
I wish I had the perfect answer, but I don’t think there is one. I was of the “don’t worry, they will eat when they are hungry” mindset. Of course they will love food–they are my kids, and I love food. But their father, like me, would eat almost anything, unlike Shane, huh?
Maybe Charli has inherited Shane’s “sensitive” taste buds–I really do think that makes a difference. Or maybe it’s a sensitive digestive system, but either way, same result. Hang in there, because you are a great cook, you care what she eats, and she will only be a temperamental toddler for a little while! Years from now, she’ll be moaning to her husband that she can’t figure out how her mom made that wonderful roast.
But maybe my less than perfect answer would be relax–because Charli will pick up on even the slightest hint of anxiety or uncertainty, and keep offering the healthy stuff. Anybody who can cook as well as you should not have to resort to corn dogs except once a year when they are a must-eat at the state fair!
Good luck! and thanks again for all the good eats you made for us last week. Proof that you can eat good and eat healthy! Sue